well i say try to stay away from the cookie cutter: - choose render - add c4d - add gradient - blur - add filter A, B, and C blur and brushes are needed, but the main thing you need to learn is that you want to get an overall flow to your picture. if the main focus stand out too much or too little it just looks "off". start with tuts but don't rely on those techniques. use what you learn to create a different way to do things. your green sig there is nice but master chief just looks like he stood in front of a green wall for a quick photo op. before trying to do crazy effects you need to pick a stock that will work well with the background. if you want to do something like your sig try to look for a stock with great shadows or highlights that will allow for an easier blending into the background. its a trial and error thing. keep up the practice and if you make thing you like then thats all that matters!
thats not true Lockdown is good and he uses gimp. I agree with people. Tutorials are the way to go when you first start. When you are comfortable with using the tools, then try to make a pro sig yourself.
yeah if photoshop is the only why to get good then there wouldn't be a bunch of sig makers I use gimp lockdown uses gimp and most people who start out use gimp. Its free and is just as good as photoshop once you get the hang of it. the easiest way to get better is tutorials and just messing around.
Photoshop has much easier ways of finding tutorials I find. I'm not saying it's the only way, but it's certainly a start.
well considering it costs like 600 bucks it should have some quality tuts for it... but it does have a bunch more not to put down on any website but pretty much anywere you get it free its going to give you a virus or some thing...